By Jack Phillips via The Epoch Times (emphasis ours),
Idaho is set to become the latest U.S. state to allow the anti-parasitic drug ivermectin to be sold without a prescription after the state legislature passed a measure.
Senate Bill 1211 was easily approved by the state legislature on Friday and delivered to Gov. Brad Little’s desk the same day.
According to the text of the bill, it “adds to the existing law that ivermectin may be sold or purchased without a prescription or consultation with a healthcare professional,” meaning it can be sold over the counter.
The bill passed the state Senate by a vote of 29-9 and the House by a vote of 66-1.
Little has not commented publicly on whether or not he will sign the bill. The Epoch Times reached out to the governor for comment on Sunday.
Senator Tammy Nichols, a Republican, introduced the bill on the floor on April 3. “We’re not mandating use, we’re not prescribing treatment, we’re not mandating sale,” Nichols told KTVB-7. “What we’re doing with this bill is simple. We’re removing a barrier.”
The bill’s co-sponsor, Senate President Pro Tempore Kelly Anthon, a Republican, said the drug has a wide range of applications.
“This is a drug that has had a truly immeasurable impact on improving the lives of billions and billions of people around the world since its discovery. It has been called a miracle drug in many places,” Anthon told lawmakers at an Idaho Senate committee last week. “It has been useful in treating human diseases and in many ways — treating parasites and worms in humans. And it is legal over the counter in most countries.”
The legislative action made Idaho one of several states that has passed or is considering a bill to deregulate the sale of ivermectin.
Earlier this year, Arkansas allowed ivermectin over the counter after the state legislature passed a measure signed by Republican Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders. In 2022, Tennessee Gov. Bill Lee, also a Republican, signed a similar measure.
The drug became popular during the COVID-19 pandemic as some doctors and studies claimed it was effective in treating the virus, although US health regulators have warned people against taking it for COVID-19.
The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has said that the agency has not approved ivermectin for use in COVID-19, while recommending that people avoid using forms of ivermectin intended for animals.
“The FDA has not determined that ivermectin is safe or effective for these indications,” the agency’s website states.
However, a study published in June 2021 found that ivermectin was associated with a “large reduction” in COVID-19 deaths. The study found that among hospitalized COVID-19 patients treated with the drug, the risk of death was 2.3 percent, compared to 7.8 percent among those who did not receive it.
A study conducted in March 2022 found that the drug was associated with a reduction in mortality compared to the use of remdesivir, analyzing a national pooled database of adults 18 years and older with confirmed COVID-19 infection from January 2020 to July 2021.
Tom Ozimek contributed to this report.
